Brush and Push

Paint Dancing brings together two seemingly disparate passions.

Put together tunes with a driving beat — funk, world music,
hip-hop, electronica, R&B, reggae, house, blues, jazz — and
nontoxic water-soluble paint in more than twenty different colors.
Throw in a hefty supply of acid-free paper and a dance floor and what
have you got?

It's Paint Dancing, an experiment in creative expression
hosted on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month by Beth Hird
and Zach Pine (the location of June 13's session will be revealed only
to those who register). Some things you can't imagine doing at the same
time: Reading and surfing. Sleeping and swordfighting. Ice-skating and
surgery. Brushwork and footwork? Now that's multitasking.

Dancing helps us "to loosen up: to lose the mind, to come into more
of a kinesthetic awareness, to paint with a body energy, a kind of joy
and sense of play," says Hird, a painter and sculptor who studied at
RISD, CCAC, the San Francisco Art Institute, and London's Slade School
of Fine Art. "I'm pretty interested in somatic energy systems, and I
find ... that dancing helps me to paint with a different kind of energy
and awareness. I'm pretty sure painting does the same for dance.
Applying paint to a surface," she explains, "is a very tactile and
sensuous experience." She likes seeing "that type of paying attention,
that type of awareness or curiosity, being transmuted into another
form, such as dance or music or writing."

One night two years ago, Hird was hosting a community dance group in
her art studio. "The paint containers were still open. Someone asked if
they could paint a painting while dancing. I said, 'Sure' and then
several people began to follow suit." She'd never thought of combining
the two activities, but "the paintings were amazing to watch: a real
synthesis of movement and energy and creativity." She and Pine
— who DJs for Soul Sanctuary Dance every Sunday at Ashkenaz
— hosted a few combo-sessions. Then they heard about Matt
Jones, a Seattleite who had formed a nationwide series of Paint Dancing
meet-up groups that donate part of their profits to charity. Hird and
Pine decided to form an East Bay group; 25 percent of their profits go
to the Alameda County Community Food Bank.

One of Hird's favorite aspects of Paint Dancing is "the wall," a
large communal mural to which all participants can contribute. She
finds it "incredible to watch the transformation of a huge blank
four-by-twelve-foot space into — you name it
— sometimes something completely abstract and wild, other
times a theme which builds on itself and then morphs into unexpected
dreamlike images and juicy colors, rhythmic shapes. Each week I'm
amazed to watch it come into being, often with strangely cohesive
elements, as if the music has some secret visual language it
transmits." 8 p.m., $12-$25. Art.Meetup.com/396/Calendar/10482397

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